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Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Nakajima retired from racing at the end of the 2021 season, taking up a role as Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe’s vice-chairman as Ryo Hirakawa took over the vacated seat in the Japanese marque’s #8 line-up in the WEC.
Despite having been retired for more than a year, the 38-year-old was named last month as Toyota reserve for the 2023 season, replacing Formula 1-bound Nyck de Vries.
Explaining the background to his call-up ahead of this weekend’s Sebring season opener, Nakajima said Kobayashi – who dovetails his Toyota driving duties with a team prinicpal role – suggested that he replaced de Vries, a remark Nakajima thought was made in jest initially.
“It was decided that Nyck was going to F1, and we had to look for a new reserve driver,” said Nakajima. “But because there are now so many manufacturers participating and the driver market is booming, we knew that finding a driver who would be a good fit would b …